Pickles lays order in Parliament scrapping "Soviet-style" regional strategies

The Communities Secretary yesterday laid an order in Parliament revoking Regional Strategies with immediate effect, saying that communities would “no longer have to endure the previous government’s failed Soviet tractor style top-down planning targets”.

Eric Pickles described the strategies – which were intended to help deliver three million homes by 2020 – as “a terrible, expensive, time-consuming way to impose house building”. They also threatened the Green Belt, he added.

The Communities Secretary insisted that the coalition government wanted to build houses, but would do so by introducing new incentives for local people so they support construction of new homes in the right places and receive rewards from the proceeds of growth to improve their local area.

Pickles also told delegates at the Local Government Association conference that the move would mean councils were free to protect Green Belt surrounding 30 towns across the country.

In a written statement to Parliament, the Communities Secretary said local spatial plans – “drawn up in conformity with national policy” and in the form of local development framework core strategies and other development plan documents – would make the basis for local planning decisions.

The minister said the government would aim to introduce the incentives for local authorities and communities “early in the spending review period”, and would consult on the detail later this year.

Pickles added that future reform “will make it easier for local councils, working with their communities, to agree and to amend local plans in a way that maximises the involvement of neighbourhoods”.

Decentralisation Minister Greg Clark described the scrapping of Regional Strategies as a “significant step”.

He added: “Regional edicts, which allowed communities no say, injected poison into the planning system which stymied development.”